Overview

This landmark volume for neurodiversity studies introduces a new, more inclusive field of scholarship for literary and cultural studies. Bringing together scholars and writers from across Europe, it explores the revolutionary potential of neurodivergent scholarly practice and demonstrates that there is no such thing as a 'normal' response to cultural production. Drawing on critical disability studies to highlight the ideology behind dominant notions of ability, it moves beyond representations of neurodivergent characters and highlights the entanglement of sensory and cognitive difference with both cultural practices and social status. Combining the recent turn towards psychiatric depathologisation with insights from feminist, queer, intersectional and critical race theory, this volume aims to amplify the epistemic authority of those who have been subject to marginalisation because of the ways we are taught to read, and value literary culture. In essence, this volume reveals what it means to read, write and love literature and the arts as a neurodivergent person.

Full Product Details

Author:   Jenny Bergenmar (University of Gothenburg, Sweden.) ,  Louise Creechan (Durham University, UK) ,  Anna Stenning (University of Leeds, UK)
Publisher:   Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Imprint:   Bloomsbury Academic
ISBN:  

9781350421172

ISBN 10:   1350421170
Pages:   256
Publication Date:   07 August 2025
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Forthcoming
Availability:   Manufactured on demand  

Table of Contents

Introduction: Divergent Textualities and Neurodivergent Approaches to Literary and Cultural Scholarship: Jenny Bergenmar, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, Louise Creechan, University of Durham, UK and Anna Stenning, University of Leeds, UK SECTION I: LIFTING THE VEIL OF NORMATIVITY Chapter 1. Neurodivergence as anti-narrative in George Eliot’s The Lifted Veil’: Louise Creechan, University of Durham, UK Chapter 2. ‘Re-embodying Difference: Race, Space, and Neurodiverse Realities’, Arya Thampuran, University of Durham, UK Chapter 3. ‘Wounded Attachments: A Neurodiverse Autoethnographic Encounter with Medieval Mystics’, Sophie Sexon, University of Glasgow, UK Chapter 4. ‘AutisTime: Imagined Friends and Borrowed Clocks’, James McGrath, Leeds Beckett University, UK Chapter 5. ‘Neurodivergence through Speculative Futures: Community, Vulnerability, and Social Change’, Chiara Montalti, University of Florence/University of Pisa, Italy Chapter 6. ‘A neurodivergent approach to Albert Camus’ L’étranger’, Alice Hagopian, University of St Andrews, UK SECTION II: MOVING BEYOND RECOGNITION Chapter 7.‘Humorous transgressions: Neurodivergence in Scandinavian Young Adult literature’, Jenny Bergenmar, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Chapter 8. ‘Monstrosity, Dyspraxia, and Jewishness in Jojo Rabbit’, Joshua Lander, Independent Chapter 9. ‘“All discourses but my own afflict me”: Morose’s house as a seventeenth-century autistic utopia (Epicoene, 1609)’: Laura Seymour, University of Oxford, UK Chapter 10. ‘Reading Between the Signs: Developing an Embodied Literary Practice’, Sarinah O’Donoghue, University of Aberdeen, UK Chapter 11. ‘Autistic Perception, Decadent Style and the Ends of Description at the Fin de Siècle’: Fraser Riddell, University of Durham, UK SECTION III: A NEURODIVERGENT IMAGINATION Chapter 12. ‘Pedagogies of the imagination: narrative media as affordances for neurodivergent sensibilities’, Anna Stenning, University of Leeds, UK Chapter 13, ‘Fragments and constellations: reading Walter Benjamin through a neurodivergent lens’, Jenny Harris, University of Cambridge, UK Chapter 14. ‘Experimenting with a neurodivergent reading practice’, Leni Van Goidsenhoven, University of Antwerp, Belgium Chapter 15. ‘An autistic writerlyness: exploring autistic reader/writer agency Hanna Bertilsdotter-Rosqvist, Södertörn University, Sweden, and Anna Nygren, University of Gothenburg, Sweden Chapter 16. ‘The Neurodivergent Sentence: An interview with Garielle Lutz’, Sophie Jones, University of Strathclyde, UK

Reviews

A vital and exciting step forward for both the emerging field of neurodiversity studies and the field of literary criticism. This volume invites us to new modes of engagement with literature, and is sure to generate many a rich classroom conversation. -- Nick Walker, Professor of Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies, USA

Author Information

Jenny Bergenmar is a Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Louise Creechan is a Wellcome Early Career Fellow at Durham University, UK. Anna Stenning is an Honorary Fellow at Durham University, UK

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